Can you make money collecting and re-selling knives (part 2)?

Status
Not open for further replies.
J.Mattson said:
I found that worrying about resale value ruins the enjoyment of any hobby. Buy what you like, enjoy it and consider any hit at resale the cost of ownership.
Click to expand...


This is the only correct answer. The amount of times I've seen people obsess over resale value on the forums is insane. If resale prospects are that important, maybe you just can't afford it.
 
Q) Can you make $ collecting and reselling knives? A) I'm sure someone can.

Q) How do you do it? A) I don't know.

I would guess most folks jump on the exclusives and limited runs and hope to resell later at a profit.

As someone that rarely spends over $100 a knife, the above statement doesn't apply to me. I'm ok with that.
 
The short answer is yes you can, but it’s a stupid waste of time.

How? Buy low and sell high, like anything else. Scoop up limited edition stuff for cheap while you can. Buy sprints, first productions, etc., keep them a while, and sell when the market is thirsty for what you have.

It’s just like buying every first issue of any new comic book that comes out. Some will fizzle to nothing and not be desirable, but some will be bigtime payoffs. No matter what, if you hang on to them you’ll probably get back more than you paid.

Bottom line is you can’t make any real money at it unless you can buy a sh!tload of knives and sit on them a while, then find the right buyers when the time is right to sell.
 
Chefget said:
How do you make a small fortune selling knives?

Start with a big fortune.
Click to expand...

Hey, don't give everyone my grand strategy!

Anyway, I intend to have as much fun as I can along the way. At least it is a rare form of entertainment where you can recover a good portion of your investment.

n2s
 
It’s possible... but very time consuming. It doesn’t seem to be worth the effort. In other words, you could walk up the highway collecting aluminum cans and glass bottles to recycle and it would probably be a better profit-to-time ratio than reselling knives.... UNLESS you’re flipping GECs from the forum on eBay...a bad thing in my opinion...in which case I think people are mostly keeping an eye out for that.
 
Last edited:
From my experience going through a lot of knives in different price categories, here are my thoughts on this:
  • The best way to make a profit - Be one of those people who is first to order limited and high demand runs. Example, people go on Monkey Edge and scoop up limited striders for $500, then sell them for $800 as soon as they get them. This relies on being able to get one, but the risk is low. If you get one, cool you can flip it. If not, no harm done.
  • Getting on a high demand custom makers list - Some risk here as by the time your name comes up, the resale value of that knife might be crappy (Example, Grimsmo Norseman's used to sell super above retails, now if you buy one brand new you are going to loose some money reselling it as they are going under retail now).
  • If you are dealing with just normal buy/selling regular models, profits will be eaten up by PayPal fees and shipping costs. A $300 sale has like $20 costs (~$9 PayPal + ~$10 Shipping w/ Insurance).
  • Buy and Hold - Basically if you can predict a model will be hot, you can buy it now and sit on it and hope it goes up. This is risky because a lot of the time, they go down.

Like other people say, it does put a stink on the hobby (for me anyway). It takes away the enjoyment a bit because you're worried about the money side of it. Part of the fun of knives is that its a hobby you can carry with your, use, etc... If your priority is flipping it, then you're not really going to enjoy the knife as a knife.
 
Not much.

As I learned when I was engaged in retail sales for a short time, you make your money on CONSISTENT VOLUME in order to be able to cover your monthly expenses and eek out a decent profit based on typically narrow margins.

While you can make what some would consider a large amount of $ on a single sale, that sale will not carry a business but if you are just a hobbuist, you can feel good about making 100% or more on a knife you bought 10-20 years ago but when you amortize the cost of that knife over time, you'll find that the rate of gain is very small.

So, if you're into any thing as a hobby (knife, guns or whatever), it will only bring you joy if it gives you "intrinstic" (not monetary) value.

I find such value in things like cars, jazz LPs, modern/CA art, knives, guns and single malt scotch which I collect but do not expect to make any $ on although they are all worth a lot of $.
 
I usually lose my butt when I sell a knife. But not always...
I just wish that I had purchased fifty NIB Spyderco Slysz Bowies...
 
Last edited:
As someone that has been collecting knives for around 50 years I would say there is a lot of luck involved in making money selling them down the road. Things I thought were a sure bet many years ago have not particularly increased in value while other items have really surprised me. Bottom line, factoring in inflation your lucky to break even most of the time.
 
Highest Profit = steal knife & sell by scamming
Low Profit = be a professional retail seller (margin is small, but high quantity makes up)
Negative Profit = be me :(
 
As a collector for about 25 years, I've noticed that most of the "in demand" knifemakers from say 20-years ago, are largely unknown to the newer generations of collectors. This means that knives that once commanded a premium before are now unwanted by new buyers chasing the latest hot design.

So don't get into this hobby thinking about profitably.
 
Here's something I haven't seen mentioned, so I'll mention it- A BIG downside of sales, is dealing with customers.

If you were just selling a knife or two once in awhile, with no pressure to make money, then you can take your time, and pick and choose who you sell to. You can limit your sales to people who have established good reputations as buyers.

But if your in BUSINESS to make money, and you've got pressure to move inventory, then you might not be able to afford to be so choosy. One bad customer can cause you major headaches, and slander your name all over the internet.

I wish I had a dollar for every sale I've seen discussed in "The Good, Bad & Ugly" subforum that went very badly.

Some people are just your garden variety pain in the ass, and some are scumbag scammers. Selling stuff in person, in a store, or at a swap meet can be bad enough, but selling to total strangers over the internet offers all sorts of other opportunities for headaches.

No thanks.



.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top